It’s been nearly a year and a half since the coronavirus emerged and changed life as we know it, but there’s still so much we don’t know about this detested disease.
Like, what are its hobbies? Why did it choose humans instead of cockroaches? Did it really come from a bat? If so, what was its name?
These are questions that probably only I want the answer to. But one thing almost everyone is certain about, is how the virus spreads.
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Through droplets and contaminated surfaces, right? Sure. But now it seems that COVID-19 might also be flying through the air into your body.
Great.
Authorities Investigating Possibility of COVID-19 Being Airborne; Could Have Contributed to TTSH Cluster
The authorities are investigating the possibility that the coronavirus can spread through the air in some settings.
This bombshell was dropped by Kenneth Mak, the Ministry of Health (MOH)’s director of medical services, yesterday (18 May).
One of the reasons this question has come up is that the authorities are trying to determine how the virus spread so rapidly in Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) with all the safety measures it had in place.
TTSH, together with the authorities, are completing epidemiological investigations into the hospital cluster and are still assessing this possibility.
The authorities are also looking into how the virus spread in other cluster and settings.
“In each of the settings, we try to assess whether it could plausibly be a result of physical contact, as a result of droplet spread or… the possibility of aerosolised transmission,” Prof Mak said.
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While droplets and contaminated surfaces remain the main mode of transmission, reports of airborne transmission suggest there’s a greater possibility of COVID-19 spreading through the air in certain settings.
These settings are typically closed environments with limited airflow and poor ventilation.
Airborne transmission could possibly have occurred in TTSH, Prof Mak said, if there was an infected person with a high viral load emitting a large amount of the virus. A setting which facilitates airborne transmission could have also made it more probable.
However, Prof Mak believes there’s more than one factor that contributed to the rapid spread in TTSH.
Scientists Have Been Saying This for A Long Time
According to Bloomberg, researchers have been warning of airborne transmission for over a year, but the authorities, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), have only recently accepted it.
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Consequently, scientists are calling for ventilation systems to be overhauled.
A similar overhaul occurred in the 1800s when public water supplies had to be improved after some pipes were found to harbour cholera.
Cleaner air, scientists argue, will not only combat this raging pandemic, but stop the spread of other viruses as well.
So, our solution to this pandemic, in addition to masking up, social distancing, and getting vaccinated, might just be better ventilation systems.
Feature Image: kandl stock / Shutterstock.com
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